Company pleased with pay-what-you-want cafe

Bread is free at a Panera Bread in Clayton, Mo. The cafe opened May 16, 2010, and is doing so well that Panera has opened similar restaurants in suburban Detroit and Portland, Ore.

Bread is free at a Panera Bread in Clayton, Mo. The cafe opened May 16, 2010, and is doing so well that Panera has opened similar restaurants in suburban Detroit and Portland, Ore.

Photo: Jeff Roberson, Associated Press

Photo: Jeff Roberson, Associated Press

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Bread is free at a Panera Bread in Clayton, Mo. The cafe opened May 16, 2010, and is doing so well that Panera has opened similar restaurants in suburban Detroit and Portland, Ore.

Bread is free at a Panera Bread in Clayton, Mo. The cafe opened May 16, 2010, and is doing so well that Panera has opened similar restaurants in suburban Detroit and Portland, Ore.

Photo: Jeff Roberson, Associated Press

Company pleased with pay-what-you-want cafe

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CLAYTON, Mo.- Rashonda Thornton looked up at the menu on the wall, ordered a Caesar salad and dropped a $10 bill in a box. Pretty generous, considering the meal at Panera Bread Co.'s cafe in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton sells for less than $7.

It was a year ago that Panera converted the Clayton restaurant into a nonprofit pay-what-you-want cafe with the idea of helping to feed the needy and raising money for charitable work.

Panera founder and chairman Ronald Shaich said the cafe, operated through Panera's charitable foundation, is a big success, largely because of people like Thornton.

"Sometimes you can give more, and sometimes you can give less," said Thornton, a teacher's assistant. "Today was one of my 'more' days."

Panera, based in suburban St. Louis, has long been involved in charitable giving, donating millions of dollars and giving away leftover food to the needy.

Shaich, however, wanted to get more directly involved.

"We were doing this for ourselves, to see if we could make a difference with our own hands — not just write a check, but really make a contribution to the community in a real, substantive way," he told The Associated Press.

What developed was the largest example yet of a concept called community kitchens, where businesses operate partly as charities.

Panera's success in Clayton has led it to open two similar cafes - one in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn and one in Portland, Ore. It plans to add another one every three months or so.

The majority of patrons pay retail value or more. Statistics provided by Panera indicate that roughly 60 percent leave the suggested amount; 20 percent leave more; and 20 percent less. One person paid $500 for a meal, the largest single payment.

"From the day it opened, the community has just gotten stronger and stronger in their support of this," Shaich said. "They got that this was a café of shared responsibility."

The Clayton location could pass for any of Panera's nearly 1,500 cafes. Soft jazz plays as people chat quietly. Men in suits sit at a table next to women in tank tops. Fresh breads and pastries entice from behind a counter. The smell of coffee fills the air.

The differences are subtle. Signs explain the pay-what-you-can concept, but cheery employee Terri Barr greets everyone at the door and spells it out.

The biggest difference is at the checkout. The menu board lists "suggested funding levels," not prices. Payments go into a donation box, though cashiers give change and handle credit cards.

Overall, the café performs at about 80 percent of retail and brings in monthly revenue of about $100,000 - enough to generate $3,000 to $4,000 for a job training program for at-risk youths.

"We took some kids that typically wouldn't be employable, didn't know how to work in society," Shaich said. "We gave them a combination of job training and life skills."

He said the experiment's success should send a message to other businesses to put faith in humanity.

"The lesson here is most people are fundamentally good," Shaich said. "People step up and they do the right thing."